Quality Start

A statistic credited to a starting pitcher who throws at least six innings while allowing three earned runs or fewer. It's a deliberately generous bar, a 4.50 ERA over six innings still counts, designed to measure whether a starter gave their team a reasonable chance to win rather than demanding genuine dominance. The stat exists because wins and losses depend heavily on factors a starting pitcher can't control, bullpen performance, run support, bad luck on balls in play, so quality starts became a way to isolate what the starter themselves actually did. Critics point out that the threshold is low enough to reward mediocre outings, a pitcher can allow three runs in the first inning then cruise and still get credit, but it remains one of the most commonly cited counting stats for evaluating rotation depth and consistency over a full season. MLB's own glossary entry has the exact threshold and its history.